These are my versions of adorable ideas that I found and made my own.

During the month of February I'll be leading a craft club one night a week for kids at my church ...so I was looking for some terrific crafts that had that 'WOW' factor but were also easy enough to complete in about 30-45 minutes...so I modified ideas I found and made them my own.

SO, are you ready to see each one up close and personal??

First...

The Tissue Paper Votive Jar

The original idea came from Carolina over at 30 Minute Crafts and rather than reinvent the wheel, I encourage you to visit her site for the full, easy to follow tutorial. I did basically the same thing, using strips of tissue paper and mod podge. However, before my glue dried, I sprinkled silver glitter over it all (kinda hard to see). But believe me when I tell you it's really pretty when it's all lit up! Carolina added a big button to her jar. The kids will be using glittered heart stickers to embellish the outside of their pretty jar. A perfect gift to give to mom :)

Next up and totally adorable is the..

Googly Eyes Heart Garland

The original idea for this came from No.2 Pencil and Melissa has instructions on her site and of course the original version. She used wood hearts and painted them. No time for that, I found foam hearts in lots of fun patterns and sizes. To make the thin hearts thicker, I just stuck two identical ones back to back (they are stickers with paper to peel off the back). I used pieces of pipe cleaner to attach them to the jute (just pushed it through the hole and twisted it tight). It almost makes it look like they have little antennae! The eyes are so fun on these...they really do 'watch' you. 

I know the kids are going to love this one! I strung my sample up across my black hutch and it is so cute.

Next up we have the...

This idea is courtesy of Aimee over at It's Overflowing. She used poster board and a jumbo heart punch. I purchased 8 x 10 art canvasses for the kids to use so it will be a sturdy piece of art. I pre-cut all the hearts using my Cricut. I found that thicker, double-sided paper worked better. For my example shown here, I just cut a piece of cardboard to size, painted it white and attached my hearts. They get folded down the middle and glued on the fold so that their sides are sticking up. It makes for a very pretty, 3-D effect.

And finally...

Tootsie Pop Flower Valentine

This cute idea is from Malia at Yesterday on Tuesday. She used a scallop punch to cut out her tissue paper. I nixed that idea (can you imagine 12 kids fighting over 1 punch??). I cut out a stack of tissue paper squares, and found an easy way to find the center by folding them in half and then half again. By cutting across that fold, it gave me the perfect center hole for inserting the tootsie pop. Scrunching up the tissue paper makes it look like a pretty flower! I also used foam for my leaves and instead of stickers, chose to write the caption on in Sharpie. To make the stem longer, I used a lollipop stick and secured it to the Tootsie Pop stick by twisting a pipe cleaner around the two. That way it can be inserted into a flower vase. Here's a few more pictures of the process:

Have I inspired you to break out the craft supplies?? I hope you choose to incorporate some of these ideas into your home this Valentines. It's so fun to do crafts with your kids or grandkids and it's never too late to start! You still have about two weeks :)

 

Happy crafting!

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